


The Pantherman

by Igraine_smiley



Series: Quarantine season 2020 [9]
Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Case Fic, Fluff, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Men in Black - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24363757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Igraine_smiley/pseuds/Igraine_smiley
Summary: Everett was at the bottom of the totem pole at his job. For a normal person that would mean having to make coffee to their a-hole boss or being relegated to xeroxing duty. For him it meant he had to go to every secluded town were a stoner had an encounter with a cryptid. He wished he was joking, but that was his reality. He was a man in black but not the cool sort.
Relationships: Everett Ross/T'Challa
Series: Quarantine season 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666678
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back again with my Everpanther bullshit, babey!

Everett was at the bottom of the totem pole at his job. For a normal person that would mean having to make coffee to their a-hole boss or being relegated to xeroxing duty. For him it meant he had to go to every secluded town were a stoner had had an encounter with a cryptid. He wished he was joking, but that was his reality. He was a man in black but not the cool sort. He was the sort that was sent to Pleasant Creek to investigate the sightings of a creature the locals dubbed, The Pantherman. The cryptid was described as half man, half panther with sharp claws that could cut through trees and white shining eyes. Everett wasn't sure if he bought it but he had to check it, just in case. When he first joined the Men In Black, he had dreamt about fighting aliens and having an office in Area 51 but he ended up in the cryptid branch. The thing with cryptids was that most of the encounters were bullshit and he had to go to the middle of nowhere to, in the best case, find an exotic animal on the run or in the worst scenario, talk to conspiracy theorists.

This town wasn't bad per se. Pleasant Creek was surrounded by imposing mountains and various bodies of water. It was very isolated, though. The kind of seclusion that made everyone know each other and enable gossip to run rampant. It was going to be impossible to blend in. The town was gripped by a Pantherman mania. Everyone seemed happy to recalled the events that transpired days ago, even when they weren't firsthand witnesses but Everett managed to find a breakthrough. Apparently a young man called Greg had seen the creature while smooching with his friend Luke.

"We weren't smooching" Greg denied as soon as Everett asked about the recent events. 

"Yeah... I don't really care about that" Everett explained "I'm from the Wildlife Department" he flashed a fake credential "I just want to know what you saw that night"

"Well, I was there in my truck with Luke. We were drinking a few beers when we heard some rustling in the woods" Everett frowned. Alcohol. That could explain all the madness "We thought it was one of our friends trying to pull a prank on us or something. We went out of the truck and looked around, but there wasn't anyone around. It was then when I pointed my flashlight to the top of the trees and I saw it..."

"The Pantherrman?" Everett asked.

"Yes. It was crouched on a branch like it was stalking us. It was humanoid, that's for sure but it had pointy ears and lifeless white eyes"

"The color of the creature?" Everett took out his trusty notebook. 

"It was all black with silver spikes on its chest" Silver spikes? That didn't sound like any kind of exotic animal. Maybe it was a true Cryptid encounter, after all. 

"So you pointed the flashlight on its face and what happened?" The man was talking to him, so he didn't die but he could have been harmed. 

"It bolted!" Greg exclaimed "It jumped upwards and we lost it. It was terrifying" so no physical evidence.

"Ok. It was probably some big cat that got loose from a private collection" Thank God for those big cat weirdos. They made his job a hundred times easier. 

"It wasn't an animal, man" Greg shook his head "It had soulless white eyes! Ask the foreign girl. She'll tell you the same thing"

"foreign girl?"

It turned out that Greg and Luke hadn't been the only ones messing around in the woods that night. Greg said that while running back to their car, they had met a teen girl. She wasn't from the town. The guys said ThePantherman had landed in front of her so they had rushed to help her but the creature vanished once again. Greg was adamant thar the girl hadn't seemed shaken by the events and once her brother arrived they parted ways. He'd have to find them to ask a few questions. He hoped it was all a case of mismatch identification and he didn't have to erase anyone's memories.

Everett went back to the only hotel in town. He was sure he'd find the remaining witnesses there and call it a day. 

"Good evening, I'm Everett Ross from the Wildlife Department" he said to the receptionist "I'm looking for..."

"The girl who saw The Pantherman?" the woman interrupted him "Do you think there's a dangerous animal going around? I've already locked my dogs inside, but nobody is taking this seriously"

"Don't worry, ma'am. We'll take of it" Everett smiled "So the girl is staying here?"

"Yes, she's been over there all day with her computer" the woman pointed towards a sofa in the common area "Youngsters these days" she shook her head.

Everett walked towards the girl who was lost in whatever she was writing in her expensive looking computer. She was very skinny and had her hair done in a very complex style made mostly with braids. 

"Hello?" he said softly to avoid startling her. The girl looked up towards him "I'm Everett Ross from the Wildlife Department" he smiled "I need to ask you a few questions..."

"Questions about The Pantherman?" the girl arched an eyebrow and close her computer "I've already told everyone that I couldn't get a clear view" she rolled her eyes "Sorry, I'm Shuri"

"Nice to meet you, Shuri" he replied "So you didn't see anything?"

"I saw what it looked like a gigantic cat. A panther most likely but you don't have panthers around here, don't you?"

"No, we don't. That's why It's important to know if..."

"We were tripping?" she smiled.

"Shuri!" a man approached them, and he was a sight for sore eyes. He had broad shoulders and a deep voice... and Everett was weak "Sorry about my little sister" 

"I was going to say that we need to know if it was a big cat that escaped from a private zoo" he mumbled distracted by Shuri's handsome brother "I'm Everett" he shook the man's hand. 

"He's from the Wildlife Department" Shuri smirked, if Everett didn't know better, he would have sworn the siblings had figured him out. 

"I can see that" the man scanned Everett with his eyes. He could feel himself blushing, what a fine agent "I'm T'Challa"

"Ah, the man I interview earlier said he saw you there too" 

"Yes, but I missed the big event" Everett couldn't help laughing.

"The man you met in the woods described a humanoid black panther with pointy ears and lifeless white eyes" he took out his notebook and read what was written on it. 

"I didn't saw that" Shuri frowned "Whatever it was, I'm sure it wasn't humanoid. It was standing on four legs and had a long tail" Everett started to grow suspicious. The girl had said she didn't saw anything that night but now she was perfectly describing a panther to him. 

"Ok. Could you see its eyes? Were they white?" he pressed. He wanted to close the case and go home. 

"Yellow" Shuri said. It looked like he wasn't going home anytime soon. 

"It's late we have to go" T'Challa cut the questions short. 

"Just a second. You didn't see or hear anything, right?" Everett look straight to the man's gentle eyes. 

"No, just heard the guys screaming"

"Right" he was sure T'Challa and Shuri were hiding something, maybe they owned the panther that got loose? How could the siblings be involved with a cryptid? "Can I ask you where are you from? I can't recognize your accent"

"We are from Wakanda" T'Challa must have notice he had never hear about that country before "A mostly rural country in Africa"

"Oh, you are a long way away from home" Everett smiled. 

"We are doing some research on your woods and fauna"

"Yeah, my bother is a nerd" Shuri said in a mocking tone. 

"Well, I'll leave you to it. Thanks for your time" Maybe the case wasn't that dull after all. At least he could stare at T'Challa like an idiot for a few days.


	2. Chapter 2

Everett had to go search for the creature in the woods. It was his job after all. He had no other option. It wouldn't be that bad if it weren't fucking freezing outside. Why wouldn't cryptids appear on sunny beaches in the Caribbean? He could feel his soul turning into ice as soon as he left his car. At least it wasn't snowing. He walked around what seemed to be an abandoned military area at the edge of the woods. He looked at the dark trees in front of him and sighed.

Everett could see the steam of his breath as he walked towards the dense forest. He tightened his coat against his body before pointing his flashlight to the vegetation around him. One of these days he was going to get mauled by a Coyote or something. The saddest part was that no one would actually miss him. He shook the bad thoughts away and dragged his feet against the frozen grass. The ground was extremely slippery. He wondered if a panther could survive in that kind of environment. Probably not. He was bearly keeping it together and he was used to the cold. He crouched down to look at a messy footprint. It looked like some kind of footwear. Definitely not a big cat. Everett stood up when he heard the sound of branches cracking. He felt something moving in the trees above his head. Things were getting interesting. 

"Is someone there?" he asked tightening the grip on his flashlight "I'm from the Wildlife Department. We are investigating the sighting of a big cat, so I wouldn't be messing around in this area" he got no reply. 

Everett continued walking in the woods, looking for any kind of clue but he didn't find any more footprints. His hands were cold even under the fabric of his gloves and the exposed skin of his face was stinging. He stopped in a clearing, and he could hear hushed voices coming from a short distance. There were probably some curious people looking for the famous Pantherman. He hated when civilians got involved, it only brought trouble. He relaxed for a while after coming up with that explanation. He looked up to the starry sky above him. It was so clear, he felt as he could raise his arm and grabbed the starts. He didn't have that kind of view in the big city. The moment was ruined when he suddenly heard rustling behind him. 

"I'm done playing hide and seek," he said as he got close to the bushes. Without any warning, something charged towards him and in a second he was on the ground with a strange man on top of him and not in an interesting way "who the fuck are you?!" he yelled. 

"You know who I am" the man grabbed him by the neck with his metallic arm and pinned him against a tree. Well, at least he had evidence that something unusual was going on there. Everett took a closer look at the man's arm. The material was extremely reflecting, like nothing he had seen before. No one had that kind of technology... Maybe it was aliens after all "I don't like being followed" the man said getting uncomfortable close to his face.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Everett said with difficulty. He gripped the man forearm trying to push him off him. He was starting to struggle to breathe. He had to think quickly.

"I think you would send a nice message to the king" the man smirked. What king? The only king Everett knew was Burger King. 

"I really don't know what you are talking about" Everett muttered as he slowly reached for his gun "you better put down your... arm" he said pressing the barrel of his revolver against the man's side.

"Fiesty," the man smiled, "I think I like you" the man got even closer to him, brushing his lips against his. Disgusting. Before Everett could do something, a black blur collided against the stranger and he fell to the ground. He frenetically patted the area around him trying to find his gun and flashlight. He could hear a commotion around him, branches breaking, bushes shaking and grunting. He found his stuff and darted towards the noise. There, between the vegetation, The Patherman was punching the headlights out of the stranger. It was definitely humanoid a hybrid between a panther and a human but its skin didn't seem like fur. It was more like some kind of exoskeleton. Greg description had been pretty spot on. The creature turned his head to look at Everett, showing its lifeless white eyes. Everett would have screamed if it weren't for the fact that a huge shockwave sent him flying backwards into a tree. The woods around him were turning and turning until the world around him went dark.

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea in my mind for 2 years, I've always wanted to post it on Halloween but never did it and now that I'm on my 74th day of quarantine... I must as well start writing it once and for all.


End file.
